DC track lighting systems are seen as part of the next generation of smart lighting solutions. Indeed, a DC track lighting system consists of a metal track powered by a linear power source to which one or more lamp holders may be attached at any point along the track. This arrangement offers great efficiency and flexibility to add, remove or reposition lamp holders.
Several solutions have been proposed to control such DC track lighting systems. For instance, systems which are compliant with the “Emerge Alliance” specification enable to control the DC track lighting system based on a low power wireless standard such as Zigbee which can range up to 100 m. In this case, every lamp in the system will need to be Zigbee enabled.
However, with the advent of near-field RF (radio frequency) communication technologies within mobile devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets), it is to be anticipated that their users will expect to be able to control a variety of products, equipments and systems with a simple “touch” action from their devices. Naturally, this is to be expected as well for controlling DC track lighting systems.
Notwithstanding the flexibility offered by near-field RF technologies, their range can usually only run up to several centimeters. Therefore, controlling one or more lamp heads of a DC track lighting system can be quite tedious since close proximity is required between the near-field RF controllers and lamp holder(s). Consequently, there it would be advantageous to provide means to control a DC track lighting system using near-field RF technologies.